Austin Majors

It has been brought to our attention that uncertified and unqualified people are participating in activities that require school psychologist ESA certification.

Per NASP, school psychologists are trained to provide mental health services in the learning context. Services include mental health screening, assessment, behavioral supports, counseling, referrals, suicide risk assessment, and threat assessments.

School psychologists provide critical consultation to families, teachers, and administrators to help them best meet the needs of students at home and at school.

One of the key roles that certificated school psychologists play in Washington schools is the administration, coordination, interpretation, and application of student assessments, especially as related to students served under Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), under federal IDEA and state personnel qualifications guidelines (WAC 392-172A-02090).

PESB requires this role as part of school teams who are evaluating students, and ensures that school psychologists certified in the state of Washington have the content knowledge, skills, and background to provide these assessments for students.

It has come to our attention that some districts are using uncertified and unqualified staff to administer, coordinate, and interpret assessments for students who may be under consideration for an IEP, or who have an IEP.  For example, these individuals may be teachers on special assignment, and titled as assessment technicians or assessment coordinators.

Additionally, some districts have been utilizing staff trained by Heritage University and the associated Psychology Assistant Training program or related professional development courses to perform these roles.

While such courses purport to train school staff as “technical specialists of cognitive assessment,” this program is not approved to lead to school psychologist certification and completion of this program by itself is not sufficient to authorize these roles.

PESB cautions LEAs that:

• Having staff members who do not hold school psychologist ESA certification perform these roles is not permitted by WAC 181-82-125.
• Having non-certificated staff performing these roles for students with IEPs may be out of compliance with federal IDEA guidelines and regulations.

Please contact PESB if you have questions at pesb@k12.wa.us.

Sincerely,

Dr. Erica Hernandez-Scott

Executive Director, PESB

Resources:

• Comprehensive Role of School Psychologists (NASP)
• NASP Principles for Professional Ethics
• Qualifications for administering assessments (Pearson)

The location for submitting the required information for the Paraeducator Training Reimbursement (918 funds) has changed. The new system for managing this reimbursement is known as the Education Grant Management System, or EGMS. An announcement will be made when the 918 funding package is available in the system, along with EGMS training materials. The previous iGrants system is no longer available for 918 funds.

If you are not claiming reimbursement for any reason, you will have the option to explain why in the required submission.

Other items of note:

• All training for the 2023-24 school year needs to be submitted by September 20. If submitted at that time, district reimbursement will occur on the October apportionment.
• If a district chooses to submit by August 16 it would receive the reimbursement on the September apportionment. 
• The type of information you have always been collecting (ie. the number of paraeducators, hours they were trained, etc.) is the same information you will input in the new EGMS system.

Questions:

• Do I need to create an account in EGMS? All recipients of 918 funds have had an account created for them in the new EGMS system.
• Who in my district has access to those already-created account details? The administrator list provides the individual with access. This person can create sub-accounts as needed.
• What if I have more EGMS questions? The OSPI webpage dedicated to EGMS includes information about regularly scheduled office hours and an email list for EGMS updates.
• For any additional questions, please join our virtual office hours
  • District Leaders: Tuesdays at 3 PM  
  • Paraeducators: Wednesdays at 3 PM

Main Contacts for 918:

Tristan Wiley, Program Manager, Paraeducator Operations and Policy Tristan.Wiley@k12.wa.us 

Alejandra Cruz-Martinez, Educator Workforce Coordinator Alejandra.Cruz-Martinez@k12.wa.us

Last week, the Professional Educators Standards Board (PESB) added Adapted Physical Education (Adapted PE) specialty endorsement to the Washington state system.

PESB, in collaboration with the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) & Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), is conducting a listening session October 10, to gather community and stakeholder feedback on the proposed essential learnings for the Adapted PE specialty endorsement, as well as who may earn this specialty endorsement.

In November, the Board will vote on whether to approve the proposed essential learning for this specialty endorsement, as well as which educators may earn this specialty endorsement.

Virtual Listening Session │October 10 │ 4:00 – 5:30 p.m

Registration

Effective July 23, 2023, there will be changes to paraeducator minimum employment requirements. Previous legislation had specifically allowed for only one assessment to meet the requirement. That has now changed.

HB 1015 passed during the last legislative session, granting the Paraeducator Board the authority to approve the assessments, and set the passing scores, that will meet minimum employment requirements for paraeducators in Washington.

New Requirements

At the May board meeting, the Paraeducator Board selected the following assessments and passing scores to meet the minimum employment requirements:

Effective beginning July 23, 2023:

ETS ParaPro assessment: 455 (from 461 current)

Pearson Paraprofessional assessment: 220 (that score is equivalent to the 50 out of 72 scorable multiple choice questions set by the Board)

The Master Teacher Inc. Paraeducator Online Training Program: 65%

Key Points

• The Board was also granted authority to create its own assessment and will be exploring that option in the 2023-24 school year.
• PESB staff are working with ETS to contact ParaPro assessment takers who scored 455-460, dating back to July 2019, to notify them that they will meet minimum employment requirements come July 23rd.
• Pearson’s Paraprofessional assessment will not be available for implementation at the effective date.
• There are two components to The Master Teacher Inc. Paraeducator Online Training Program: a knowledge and an instructional component. Candidates must earn 65% on each to meet the passing score threshold for the assessment.

Questions and more information

PESB staff will host a webinar on June 15th at 2 p.m. to discuss this topic and answer your questions. Registration is required.

A recording of the webinar will be made available on the PESB YouTube channel.

Paraeducator Reimbursement Program – FP 918 – has now been posted on iGrants. Districts and ESDs can now access the application and must submit their first update by April 21. Assistance opportunities and highlighted changes in the application can be found below.

The application has been updated with the following changes:

Three cohorts of paraeducators:

• New Paraeducators – 28 hours of training on Fundamental Course of Study (FCS)
• Continuing Paraeducators – 14 hours of training on FCS
• Continuing Paraeducators who completed the FCS – 14 hours of training on General Certificate

Final reports are now due October 2nd (instead of September 1 – based on district feedback)

• Districts that complete their training by June 30 can submit their final report by July 7
• Districts that submit by July 7 will be reimbursed on the September apportionment

In lieu of the external Spring survey, we are gathering data on paraeducators directly in the iGrants application itself. The two data areas include:

• Paraeducator vacancies
• Training hours that go unreimbursed in the all-or-nothing model

Ways to connect with us for assistance:

We are hosting two webinars to walk through completing the first report for this form package. Please register ahead of time using the following links:

Thursday, April 6 at 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 12 at 10:30 a.m.

We will host additional webinars to support the next reporting deadlines. Dates will be announced closer to each deadline.

Please come with your questions, and we look forward to seeing you!

Can’t make it to one of the webinars above? The webinar will be recorded, sent to those that registered, and uploaded to our PESB YouTube Channel.

Other ways to connect:

Don’t forget about the weekly office hours open to implementation leaders.

Talk with us Tuesdays – 3:00-4:00 weekly: https://bit.ly/pesb_officehours_tues

Have paraeducators with questions? We have office hours for paraeducators too!

Questions Welcome Wednesdays – 3:00-4:00 p.m. weekly: https://bit.ly/pesb_officehours_wed

Beginning in 2022-23, districts must now provide all four days (28 hours) of FCS training to their paraeducators every school year. Previously, only two days were required. Read the announcement.

On Friday, March 25, members of the Professional Educator Standards Board unanimously approved to adopt the newest set of cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion (CCDEI) standards for Washington educators. View the announcement.